Do you cross your ankles?

DustyBin

I trying to learn / get better at the front crawl but I've been getting what seems to be conflicting advice.

Firstly I'm doing the whole rolling thing with my strokes.
When I'm rolling I'm also stretching forward slightly with my front hand so it just sorta feels more natural to roll everything all the way down [shoulders, torso, hips, legs].

Then someone watching me tells me that I'm crossing my legs when I roll, not being able to see myself I wasn't sure how bad obviously. They told me that my hips should not roll - so I've been trying to do that since.

Today then I see some examples showing the swimmer crossing their ankles once on the kick [legs are kicking away, body roll commences, at the peak of the roll one ankle crosses over the other once during the kick when looking directly down from the sky]

Anybody any thoughts or advice for me on this one please?
Should hips remain parallel with bottom of pool and ankles sided by side, or should entire body roll with one little cross of the ankles?

Thanks

Clseeper

This is one of the reasons it’s tough giving advice over the net, there are consequences which may not be ideal. Yes you should roll but your ankles shouldn’t be crossing. Ideal the roll should be more in your shoulders and be small in your hips and legs.
The fact that your ankles are crossing points to you may not be kicking as much as you should or the kick may be too large.

You can either focus on less roll in your hips or more smaller flutter kicks.

DustyBin

Thanks Clseeper
I'd reckon of the two it's more likely not kicking enough, my swimming is not good, and the kick is probably the weakest part